This compendium presents key results from the first phase of the Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality project, launched in 2021 by UN Women Türkiye with EU support. It highlights the impact of over 40 civil society organizations advancing gender equality through small grants, training, and advocacy—especially during crises like COVID-19 and the 2023 earthquakes—showcasing powerful stories of collective action for all women and girls.

This publication offers a timely reflection on global progress toward SDG 5, released for the 2025 High-Level Political Forum. It highlights key trends, policy gaps, and opportunities for accelerating gender equality—especially as the world marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and enters the final stretch of the 2030 Agenda.

This publication showcases how UN Women is advancing Gender-Responsive Budgeting in the Western Balkans to ensure public resources benefit everyone equally. Through a practical model and strong partnerships, the initiative supports governments in making budgeting process more fairer, more inclusive, and impactful for all.

These thematic briefs offer an overview of UN Women’s contributions to advancing gender equality across Europe and Central Asia. Each brief showcases evidence-based strategies, regional successes, and the added value of our unique triple mandate. Explore how UN Women partners with governments, civil society, and the private sector to advance gender equality across the region.

The Women Count biannual programme brief provides the latest updates on improving gender data production and use in the region.

This brief captures how the Gender Equality Facility is driving transformative change across the EU accession region—embedding gender equality in national reforms, recovery, and public investment. With insights from seven countries, it outlines lessons learned and charts a path forward for accelerating progress through EU integration.

This brief highlights UN Women’s role in ensuring gender-responsive humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction across Europe and Central Asia. Through inter-agency leadership, targeted operational support, and localized disaster resilience initiatives, UN Women ensures that women and girls’ specific needs are addressed during crises. By partnering with women-led organizations and integrating gender analysis, UN Women strengthens resilience and promotes women’s leadership in emergency response and recovery.

This brief outlines UN Women’s role in strengthening women’s political participation and civic space in Europe and Central Asia. By supporting gender-balanced decision-making targets, resourcing civil society, and countering political violence against women, UN Women drives inclusive governance reforms. Through technical expertise and strategic partnerships, UN Women fosters resilient, gender-equal political institutions.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact in shifting discriminatory gender norms across Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It showcases how our joint “EU 4 Gender Equality” programme with UNFPA—backed by EU funding—has built evidence on social norms change, implemented innovative advocacy campaigns, and empowered civil society through subgrants.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact in advancing Women, Peace, and Security across Europe and Central Asia through a holistic, conflict-responsive approach. By integrating conflict analysis with participatory peace processes and economic recovery, supporting gender-responsive security programs, and funding feminist networks, UN Women has strengthened women’s leadership and inclusion in peacebuilding.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact and added value in partnering with the private sector across Europe and Central Asia to break down gender barriers in the workplace and marketplace. It highlights how UN Women ensures that private sector commitments align with international human rights standards and generate real, measurable benefits for women and girls by combining expert technical assistance, convening power, and a robust network of stakeholders.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact and added value in advancing gender equality throughout the EU accession process in Europe and Central Asia. It demonstrates how the Gender Equality Facility (GEF) framework—anchored in EU Gender Action Plan III—has supported seven accession and ten enlargement countries in aligning domestic laws with the Acquis, strengthening institutional capacity, and mainstreaming gender across all negotiation chapters.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact and added value in tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) across the Europe and Central Asia region. It demonstrates how our comprehensive, survivor-centered approach—rooted in strong legislation, evidence-based National Action Plans, capacity building, and transformative social-norms work—has strengthened institutional responses and multisectoral service delivery.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact in the Europe and Central Asia region by showcasing our gender-responsive approach to the climate crisis. It demonstrates how integrating women’s leadership, rights and expertise into climate and environmental action—through targeted funding, evidence generation, policy advocacy, and capacity-building—delivers more effective, equitable, and resilient outcomes.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact and added value in the Europe and Central Asia region by showcasing its leadership in transforming care work into a driver of gender equality and sustainable development. Through best practices, it explains how comprehensive care systems—underpinned by inclusive policies, social protection, and macroeconomic reforms—can recognize, reduce, redistribute, reward, and represent both paid and unpaid care activities.

This brief highlights UN Women’s impact and added value in the Europe and Central Asia region on addressing critical gender data gaps. It demonstrates how robust, gender-sensitive statistics underpin evidence-based policies—from violence against women and time-use surveys to women’s entrepreneurship and climate resilience—and outlines key achievements in strengthening national statistical systems.

This brief showcases UN Women’s impact and added value in the Europe and Central Asia region by spotlighting our thematic work on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB). It demonstrates how public budgets can be harnessed to advance gender equality when aligned with women’s and girls’ unique needs and highlights key achievements in the region.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022 highlighted the urgent need to address the interconnected challenges of climate change, gender inequality, and conflict. This brief, part of the UN Women ECARO series, offers policy recommendations to enhance the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda, promoting gender-responsive approaches in crisis contexts. It aims to strengthen climate resilience and support SDGs 5, 13, and 16 by addressing gender, climate, and peacebuilding intersections.

This brief highlights good practices from Ukraine, Moldova, and Poland that demonstrate how Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) coordination contributes to advancing the localization agenda by promoting the leadership of women’s organizations and embedding gender equality in humanitarian action. These examples underscore the urgent need to sustain and prioritize GiHA coordination amid a shifting international donor landscape.

This analysis delves into women's participation and results following the 2024 local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It highlights the way quotas and temporary special measures are used in list-based elections, but not applied by parties when presenting individual candidates, such as mayoral elections. It provides insights into trends and political parties' commitments to gender parity in political participation. Finally, it gives a set of recommendations to increase women's representation.